Davutoğlu says he had no links to intel trucks bound for Syria

Duvar English 

Future Party leader and former prime minister Ahmet Davutoğlu has said that he has no connection to the intelligence trucks filled with weapons that were stopped on the way to Syria in 2014.

Speaking to broadcaster Habertürk on May 31, Davutoğlu said that he wasn't the prime minister at the time of the incident. 

His remarks came after mafia leader Sedat Peker claimed that SADAT, a paramilitary group founded by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's former advisor, sent weapons to al-Nusra in 2015. 

Following his allegations, many in the political arena looked back to the stopping of National Intelligence Organization (MİT) trucks filled with weapons on the way to Syrian jihadists in 2014. The scandal was covered up by the government at the time through the jailing of journalists who reported the issue. 

"I wasn't the prime minister when the MİT trucks incident took place. I was the foreign minister. Sedat Peker's allegations are not related to the MİT trucks," Davutoğlu said on May 31, adding that the trucks were stopped by security forces on Jan. 19, 2014. 

"Peker was in jail at the time. He was released on March 10, 2014. The MİT and the general staff were not under my command when I was the foreign minister. I didn't have any meetings with Sedat Peker or SADAT when I was the prime minister," Davutoğlu also said. 

Peker, who has been releasing videos for the past month from Dubai that are filled with serious allegations against current and former politicians, said on May 30 that his organization sent military equipment to Turkmen rebels in Syria's Bayırbucak region in 2015 and that was when SADAT approached him to send additional trucks. 

The mafia boss said that he thought SADAT was sending the trucks to the Turkmen rebels, but later found out that they were actually bound for al-Nusra. 

Peker supports Davutoğlu's remarks 

Davutoğlu confirmed that aid was sent to the Turkmens, but it was not related to terror. 

"No one can perceive this as a terror incident. Not during my tenure. There had been no weapons transfers when I was the prime minister. Sedat Peker's allegations are not related to me," he said. 

Davutoğlu noted that he can't comment on the period after his resignation in 2016. 

Shortly after, Peker shared a tweet that confirmed the Future Party leader's words. 

"The things Mr. Davutoğlu said are correct. As I said in the video, the weapons were sent by SADAT. The general staff and MİT are not related to this organization," Peker said 

Also during the interview on May 31, Davutoğlu said that Erdoğan ordered him to bring U.S.-based Islamic preacher Fethullah Gülen to Turkey in 2013. 

Gülen, an ally-turned-foe of the government, is the believed mastermind of the July 15, 2016 failed coup attempt.